Agriculture (Land, Agriculture and Water in Asia)

General

This project is part of the LAW (Land, Agriculture and Water) in Asia project. The objectives of this project are to double the income of smallholder farmers in Sugarcane, Soy, Palm Oil, Cotton, Tea and Aquaculture and miners working with Industrial Minerals, while reducing their negative impacts on forests, water and soil; to stem and reverse the accelerating land degradation; and to arrest and reverse the depletion of groundwater. The use of the digital tools (D3S) will allow the farmers to analyse compliance with different standards, assess impact on ecology, and benchmark performance. It will replace the costly audits for certification. Farmers will be supported with cheaper drip irrigation systems, combining fertigation and nutrigation, and with the re-use of wastewater (industrial effluents from sugarcane mills and sewage water from municipalities). SMEs will be assisted to provide services, aggregate produce and sell the products from the farmers. In India, we reached 182,268 small scale producers and 443,532 workers. We brought 210,569 hectares of land under better farm and climate smart agriculture practices. In addition, jobs were created for 1,820 entrepreneurs to start providing inputs and services, such as harvesting, land levelling, threshing, thereby improving the access to quality seeds, services and knowledge for farmers in India. Another 5,986 women were supported to start their own businesses. In 2019 we have trained 25,167 soy farmers in good agricultural practices, leading to a 12% yield increase. We have also trained 50,334 farm workers in the adoption of Good Practices, new technologies and safety measures. 2,556 women received specific training on financial literacy, savings, access to finance, entrepreneurship and soy food processing. To create a robust infrastructure for small farmers’ access to knowledge, inputs and markets, we have supported 15 rural entrepreneurs, 10 extension services and 5 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) that together reach out to 15,039 small farmers and provide production and market knowledge, agri-inputs and technological advisory services to farmers. Together with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and 10 sugarcane mills we have reached out to 94,808 small scale sugarcane farmers, their 269,973 workers, and brought 89,991 hectares of land under sustainable production. About 70% of the producers report a 15% yield increase, while sugar extraction rates at the mills increased by 2%. Additionally 300 billion liter of water have been saved in the last 3 years.